to tariq
Reader comment on item: Pretending There's a Country Called "Palestine"
in response to reader comment: to jim

Submitted by bos (United Kingdom), Nov 13, 2007 at 16:36

thats an old, old dictionary your quoting there. But you're right ,many of the peoples of Canaan were semitic, but not all of them, and not the Philistines, so there goes your filistan cultural link.'

In any event, as early as the Middle Bronze age the term Canaanite is useful only as a general rather than a specific term. The Palestinians are not in any realistic sense descended from the pagans of Canaan. You are much more likely to find the blood of Hebrews, Greeks, Romans, Arabs, miscelaneous crusaders, Armenians, Kurds, Turks and Mongols in a Palestinian vein than a single drop of ancient Canaanite pagan.

The Canaanite merchant and seamen mentioned in your old, old dictionary were the Phoenecians, and there ethnic identity and ethnic links to the specific 'canaanites' are by no means clear, what is clear is that they were distinct peoples at the time of the Hebrew domination of Canaan, while the Canaanites basically became a footnote of history the Phoenicians happily traded Jewish goods from byblos to spain. your desperation to link contempary Palestinians to ancient Canaanites and turn the current conflict into the worlds oldest unfinished grudge match is bellicose propogandist nonsense and no-one but you and a few fascist psuedo authors (only sold at the Damascus museum gift shop) believe it.

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